4 PsPrice

Promotion Product- going to

look at today Place

Learning Outcomes

1. Understand and be able to apply the Product Life Cycle.

2. Apply the Product Life Cycle to your coursework.

Product-the ipod• So what is at the

heart of this marketing triumph?

• Not only is the iPod making huge profits (probably more than $1,000 million in 2005), but its reputation is making more people buy Apple computers.

iTunes• The iPod was

launched in 2001, but it was only the establishment of iTunes in 2002 that made sales start to move.

Product Life Cycle

Product Life Cycle• Where do you think the iPod range is in the

product life cycle now?

Sales of iPodsWorldwide Sales of Apple iPods

Source: Apple Computer accounts

0

1,000,000

2,000,000

3,000,000

4,000,000

5,000,000

6,000,000

7,000,000

2002Q4

2003Q1

2003Q2

2003Q3

2003Q4

2004Q1

2004Q2

2004Q3

2004Q4

2005Q1

2005Q2

2005Q3

iPod Marketing Mix• Product: quick product

development, from iPod 2001, to iPod Mini 2003, iPod Photo 2004 to iPod Shuffle 2005. As with all its competitors, the iPod is made (very cheaply) in China, so the key to its success is the stylish design, not high quality manufacture.

Price• Price: always startlingly

high; at launch, the iPod was over £200; even today the iPod Mini 2 is £139, whereas other MP3 players can cost as little as £20. Apple has managed the business dream of achieving market penetration at prices that skim the market.

Place• Place: nothing new

here; Apple have distributed the iPod through the normal mixture of department stores, electrical shops and on-line retailers.

• Are ipods sold in supermarkets?

Promotion• Promotion: brilliant and

lavish use of posters and TV, featuring one of the all-time great images, the ‘silhouette’.

• So what will happen next to iPod? Sony and Nokia are desperate to win some of this incredibly profitable business. Why carry a mobile phone and an iPod, if you could get them combined into one?

Product

1. Describe your product or service.

2. Describe the Product Life Cycle

3. What makes your product or service different from others?

4. Where is your product or service on the Product Life Cycle?

5. How does the Product Life Cycle help you?